My 1st Dumper

Over The Cliff Brewing

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Well I have gone and done it. I just dumped my first batch. This is not me congratulating myself. This is me kicking myself. I made the cold crash mistake. Yeah you know what I'm talking about. I left the blow-off tube connected and my first shot at a saison just went down the drain. If you like star san with a bit of saison, I had it for you. Here's the rub. I believe someone just posted in a thread here a few days ago about not doing that.

So to wash my sorrow away I am drinking this IPA that I brewed about 3 weeks ago. I bottled a gallon and kegged 4 galllons. I think I like the bottled better. Anyway, thanks for reading.:mad:
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Well I have gone and done it. I just dumped my first batch. This is not me congratulating myself. This is me kicking myself. I made the cold crash mistake. Yeah you know what I'm talking about. I left the blow-off tube connected and my first shot at a saison just went down the drain. If you like star san with a bit of saison, I had it for you. Here's the rub. I believe someone just posted in a thread here a few days ago about not doing that.

So to wash my sorrow away I am drinking this IPA that I brewed about 3 weeks ago. I bottled a gallon and kegged 4 galllons. I think I like the bottled better. Anyway, thanks for reading.:mad:View attachment 10473
Yeah I've dumped a few in my time at the helm the hard part is you've got no one else to blame lol!
You know you best next step will be get back on that horse son and brew me some beer:p!

Oh dont know if that was me you were referring too transferring my lovely porter onto a quarter keg of starsan...:rolleyes:
 
I haven't dumped one yet, so yay me! How much starsan did it pull in cause I've had some go in before and not been able to tell.
 
I've had to dump 2 batches out of at least 60 brews in my time.

1st one was the second beer I ever brewed. It was an AHS Summer Wheat that had a dishwater sour flavor to it. probably an infection.

2nd one was a brew that I waited 3 days to pitch the yeast. When I went to the fermentation chamber to pitch, it was already fermenting. down the drain it went...

Loose sanitation and slow to pitch are both lessons I won't soon forget...at least I hope not.
 
I thought about that, but the smell was akin to chemical cleaner and burned my nose when I opened the fermenter. Thought it best to dump it.

Perhaps I should have let it ride out. Who knows, it may have ended up being a great beer.
Wild fermentations are not always wonderful. Why do you think that, as soon as brewers knew about pure cultures, they switched to them?
 
I dumped a batch early in my homebrewing career. It had sat in primary for six weeks and was before I was doing any fermentation temperature control so, it went a little beyond the temperature range for the yeast. I just didn't want the hassle of bottling five gallons of bad beer so I dumped it. Knowing what I know now I probably should have bottled it and waited it to prove itself to be undrinkable.
 
Well I have gone and done it. I just dumped my first batch. This is not me congratulating myself. This is me kicking myself. I made the cold crash mistake. Yeah you know what I'm talking about. I left the blow-off tube connected and my first shot at a saison just went down the drain. If you like star san with a bit of saison, I had it for you. Here's the rub. I believe someone just posted in a thread here a few days ago about not doing that.

So to wash my sorrow away I am drinking this IPA that I brewed about 3 weeks ago. I bottled a gallon and kegged 4 galllons. I think I like the bottled better. Anyway, thanks for reading.:mad:View attachment 10473

I just listened to a Brewlosophy pod cast about using Starsan. They do NOT advocate drinking it BUT did a bunch or research on how much the flavor effects the beer. And the answer was: not much but a little. In a 5 gallon batch a cup or 2 of starsan may not have even been noticeable to most people (theory goes the beer neutralizes the starsan because Starsan is acid based - check out the podcast; it was pretty interesting)...just don't serve any to the guests you like. :p

As for dumpers: I've had 3 so far but learned from each failure. First one was an attempt at a tripel - it tasted off. Not horrible but not nice. I know now it is because I used my tap water which is way too full of hard minerals for a nice tripel. The second one was an attempt at a peppered Witbier. I gently crushed about 20 grams of black pepper corns and added it to the boil...:confused::oops: gross. So bad you couldn't swallow a full mouthful. I learned use less, and I mean WAY less, not more when you spice your beers. The third one was an attempt at a NEIPA. I did a winter brew in the house and could not use my chiller so I put the kettle in the snow on my front step. Even at -25 celcius it still took 3 hours to cool 6 gallons down enough to transfer to the glass carboy. Let me tell you....you CAN leave your hops in hot wort for too long...tasted like fermented grass clippings dipped in mud. Awful to drink but made a surprisingly good beer bread. :cool:
 
I just listened to a Brewlosophy pod cast about using Starsan. They do NOT advocate drinking it BUT did a bunch or research on how much the flavor effects the beer. And the answer was: not much but a little. In a 5 gallon batch a cup or 2 of starsan may not have even been noticeable to most people (theory goes the beer neutralizes the starsan because Starsan is acid based - check out the podcast; it was pretty interesting)...just don't serve any to the guests you like. :p

As for dumpers: I've had 3 so far but learned from each failure. First one was an attempt at a tripel - it tasted off. Not horrible but not nice. I know now it is because I used my tap water which is way too full of hard minerals for a nice tripel. The second one was an attempt at a peppered Witbier. I gently crushed about 20 grams of black pepper corns and added it to the boil...:confused::oops: gross. So bad you couldn't swallow a full mouthful. I learned use less, and I mean WAY less, not more when you spice your beers. The third one was an attempt at a NEIPA. I did a winter brew in the house and could not use my chiller so I put the kettle in the snow on my front step. Even at -25 celcius it still took 3 hours to cool 6 gallons down enough to transfer to the glass carboy. Let me tell you....you CAN leave your hops in hot wort for too long...tasted like fermented grass clippings dipped in mud. Awful to drink but made a surprisingly good beer bread. :cool:
Unfortunately, my blow off tube was in a half full gallon container. When I opened the fridge, the container was bone dry. So........
 
Unfortunately, my blow off tube was in a half full gallon container. When I opened the fridge, the container was bone dry. So........
:( yikes..... yeaaaaah...a half gallon might be a smidge more than recommended....:) I'd have dumped it too
 
Call it a Lambic and win some awards. That's what I recommend with every dumper these days. ;)
 
Sigh. I guess it happens to us all:

Kegged some Hefeweitzen today, and was pleasantly surprised that it filled the entire keg. I usually get only about 4-3/4 gallons.

All was dandy until I remembered I'd put the keg away cleaned & sanitized... with about a half gallon of StarSan in there. And forgot to empty it out before filling the keg.

Tasted the beer, was a bit sour or acidic (no wonder) but not really bad, decided drinking it was probably a bad idea.
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Edit: not sure why it is upside down...
 
Gotta knock on wood here. After 13 years of brewing, I've never brewed a dumper. My first batch, a kit & kilo lager, brewed at room temperature, with the 5 gram packet of yeast that was taped to the can, sucked, but after aging for a couple of months, it wasn't too bad. I did have a batch dump itself when one of the chiller hoses ruptured and overflowed the kettle for probably 15 minutes while I wasn't watching.

Call it luck, if you will, as I've definitely had a couple that I resisted the temptation to dump. They actually both turned out great, through no fault of my own :confused:
 

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